On July 21, 2015, NAR along with 8 banking and housing trade groups urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s guarantee fees (g-fees) from being used as a source of funding for the extension of transportation programs.
G-fees are charged and used as a risk management tool by the government-sponsored entities to protect against losses from home mortgages. However, since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were place in conservatorship, Congress has used their funds to pay for unrelated federal spending. Therefore, NAR’s coalition letter conveyed to lawmakers that g-fees should only be used to manage the companies’ credit risk and no longer be diverted for unrelated spending by Congress.